Therapy
by obi's girl
Summary: Doctor Archie Hopper treats Belle and Mr. Gold at the same time, but doesn't realize how connected they are. The more he learns about both of them, the more he starts to question his own sanity.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Therapy  
AUTHOR: obisgirl  
Rating: PG-13  
Characters: Belle, Archie, and Mr. Gold  
Summary: Doctor Archie Hopper treats Belle and Mr. Gold at the same time, but doesn't realize how connected they are. The more he learns about both of them, the more he starts to question his own sanity.  
Spoilers: Based on something Raphael Sbarge said at Paley Festival that he would be getting two new patients in addition to Henry this season. Part of this fic is "AU" since nothing has been said about Belle becoming one of Archie's patients this season.  
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time characters are property of Disney and Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis. This fanfic is for pure entertainment.

Belle feels uncomfortable, trying to get comfortable in Dr. Hopper's office. Walls still make her nervous and she doesn't like talking to people she doesn't know. Emma assures her that Archie isn't going to hurt her and she won't leave until she is ready for her to leave, so she waits outside the office. Emma is Belle's personal bodyguard.

Archie is surprisingly patient with Belle; Emma warned him before meeting her that she had been locked away underneath the hospital with no human contact.

"There's no light in here," Belle says finally, going over to the window, clearing the curtains.

"Was that what was bothering you?" he asks.

Belle stops, turning back to him. She doesn't know how to respond to that statement. "I'd been locked up down there for so long, I rarely saw the light," she muses. "I rarely saw anyone at all,"

Archie sympathizes with her. He can't understand how anyone can lock up a person for 28 years? What was it about this girl that she warranted such treatment?

"I barely feel like myself," Belle continues, finally sitting down, "whatever that means,"

"You still have trouble remembering things?"

"I don't know… everything is coming back in pieces. None of it makes sense. I don't know if that's the hospital's work or something else," she cries, "but I need to be positive, right? I'm free. I'm not there anymore,"

Archie smiles. "That's right, you're not a prisoner anymore," he says.

"I still am," she muses, pointing to her head, "a prisoner of my own memories. Why can't I remember it all?"

"You need to be patient," he soothes, "You can't force your memories to make sense. The brain doesn't work that way,"

Belle sighs, "And what happens if I never remember?"

Archie doesn't know how to answer that.

Belle's question bothers Archie throughout the day, he barely notices the time when Mr. Gold shows up, promptly at 5 o'clock for his therapy session. Dr. Hopper was reluctant at first to take him on but quietly agreed after their first discussion. After several sessions with him, Archie quickly learned that Mr. Gold was a complex man.

During most of their sessions, Gold ranted about Regina but rarely talked about himself. He did find it odd that everything he talked about all seemed to lead back to the Mayor.

"Something preoccupying you today doctor?" Gold ventures.

Archie sighs. "It's nothing," he says. "This therapy session isn't about me; it's about you, Mr. Gold,"

Gold shrugs. "I visited Moe French today at the hospital," he reveals, "I even brought him flowers,"

"Oh," Archie smiles, "That's very nice of you. How is Mr. French doing?"

"His recuperation is slow but he'll live," he says, "He didn't want to see me at first but his nurses persuaded him to see me,"

"What did he say?"

"He said if I ever came near him again, he'd kill me," he muses, "A lot of good the roses did, I trashed them on my way out of his room,"

Archie frowns. "I don't mean to be blunt but you did almost kill the man,"

Gold closes up. "He took something from me, something very important. I needed to get it back," he defends.

"I understand that Mr. Gold but violence never solves anything,"

"This trinket holds special value in my heart," he says finally, "It's the only thing I have left of..."

Archie looks at him curiously and remembers Emma telling him that he mentioned a 'she' and Archie thinks maybe he will finally learn the identity of the "she."

"She's gone now," Gold continues, "No use talking about it anymore,"

Archie sighs.

Belle arrives early for her next session, wearing a blue sun dress. She looks livelier than their last session, there's even color in her cheeks and her blue eyes look more vibrant.

"I made a decision yesterday," she starts, "The more I try to reconcile my memories, the crazier it's going to make me so I decided that I'm not going to let them interfere with my recovery,"

Archie frowns. "That's a shame,"

"Why? I thought that would be a good thing,"

He removes his glasses, cleaning them. "Unfortunately, in your case, I think trying to ignore your memories will cause you more harm than good. You need to deal with them head on in order to understand what happened to you," he says.

Belle scowls. She thought that she was making progress. She looks at her hands and smoothes her dress, looking plainly at him. "I want to get better Doctor Hopper but I'm scared of what my memories might reveal. What if I deserved to be locked up in there? I could be dangerous,"

Archie leans foreword. "Listen to me Belle; no one deserves to be locked up like that, especially you. Don't ever think that you deserved to have that happen to you because you didn't. And you are not dangerous,"

"How can you be sure of that? You barely know me,"

"Because look at you now," he says, "Your memory maybe hazy but you look more like yourself than you did the first time I met you,"

Belle smiles slightly.

Mr. Gold arrives promptly at 5 o'clock but very disturbed. He says that he needs a drink and Archie offers him some water but he brushes it away, saying that he needs something stronger. Unfortunately, Archie doesn't have anything stronger in his office and Mr. Gold gruffly accepts the glass of water.

"Visit Moe French again?" he ventures.

"No," Gold replies, "I couldn't sleep last night, had horrible nightmares and nearly missed opening my shop on time today. That never happens to me,"

Archie raised a curious eyebrow. "What happened in your dreams?"

Gold sighs. "I saw her face,"

"Her face? Who is she?"

He shrugs, drinking the water like its scotch or something. "She's dead," is all her offers.

"Oh," Archie muses, "I'm sorry to hear that,"

"What I don't understand is why am I dreaming about her now?"

"Maybe something's changed to make you dream about her," he offers.

"But what?"

Archie doesn't know.

Archie has chamomile tea prepared when Belle shows up for her session in a different blue dress. Belle likes the tea and Archie says he thought it would help her relax. He wants to try a new exercise to help her remember. He instructs Belle to lie down on the couch and close her eyes.

Belle's hesitant to at first but complies, setting the tea cup down. She fixes her hair before lying flat, closing her eyes.

He asks if she can still hear his voice and Belle nods.

"I want to let your thought drift to your dreams, relax, let them come to you," he soothes.

Belle scrunches her nose but relaxes. She sees a plethora of images, none of which make any sense to her. Then she sees his wretched face taunting her and she wakes up abruptly, spilling the tea.

"Oh Gods, I'm sorry," she cries, hurriedly grabbing a napkin and cleaning up the mess.

"Don't worry about that tea," Archie says, "What did you see?"

Belle doesn't know how to describe what she saw but she knows how she felt when she saw his face. It frightened her and would rather never see that face ever again.

"Its okay, its okay," Archie continues, "Take your time,"

Belle stands up, goes to the other side of the room, near the curtains and buries her face in them. "I don't want to see his face again," she says finally.

"I understand that but you remembered something important, Belle," Archie continues, "That's progress,"

Progress, she thinks, or _something else_, _something dark_.

tbc


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Therapy  
AUTHOR: obisgirl  
Rating: PG-13  
Characters: Belle, Archie, and Mr. Gold  
Summary: Doctor Archie Hopper treats Belle and Mr. Gold at the same time, but doesn't realize how connected they are. The more he learns about both of them, the more he starts to question his own sanity.  
Spoilers: Based on something Raphael Sbarge said at Paley Festival that he would be getting two new patients in addition to Henry this season. Part of this fic is "AU" since nothing has been said about Belle becoming one of Archie's patients this season.  
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time characters are property of Disney and Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis. This fanfic is for pure entertainment.

Mr. Gold smells chamomile tea as he enters Archie's office; the curtains look wrinkled and there's a wet spot on the carpet. "You had an accident?" he asks.

"Nothing serious," Archie says, fixing Gold's usual water.

"You sure you like me drinking water when you just spilled chamomile tea over your carpet?"

He shrugs. "I didn't spill it,"

The statement confuses Gold but he quickly dismisses it. "Was Henry being clumsy again?" he muses.

Archie smiles. "I'm not at liberty to talk about my other patients with another patient,"

"Fair enough," he says, "but I think I would like some of that chamomile tea instead of the water this time, if you still have some?"

Archie pours some of that chamomile tea. "Your dreams still bothering you?" he asks.

"Here and there," Gold muses.

~~  
Belle brings drawings to her next therapy session with Doctor Hopper; she's not a skilled artist but after their last session, she couldn't get 'that' image out of her mind. So she started drawing, sketch after sketch of the man - is he a man?

Archie looks at them, he dresses like a man but his monstrous features make him something different. And she isn't an artist; that he can tell.

"I thought it would help me to draw him," she says.

The sketches don't look anything like anyone he's met, the lines are more child-like and the strokes too dark to make out any visible features.

"Have you drawn anything else?"

"No, just him or it," Belle muses, scrunching her nose again.

"It?"

Belle shrugs, pointing to the drawing in his hand. "Well, he doesn't look like a man, does he?"

Archie sighs. "In a civilized sense? No, he doesn't," he reasons, "Okay, what do you think 'it' is then?"

"I don't know," Belle muses, "but it is curious that he would be the only one I'd draw,"

Only then does Dr. Hopper look at the other drawings in his hands and his skin goes cold. He asks Belle if he can keep the drawings and she says 'yes,' since she doesn't care to look at his face and he hides them in his desk.

~~

Mr. Gold arrives five minutes late, which shocks Archie considering he always arrives promptly at 5 p.m. for their therapy session. Archie doesn't say anything as he settles on the couch. He doesn't want to pry about why he was late. It's only five minutes.

"Sheriff Swan spotted me as I was leaving the shop and asked if I was okay," he says. "You can blame her for making me late,"

"If she was only concerned about you, I can't really blame her,"

Gold shrugs. "I suppose not,"

~~

Archie's therapy session with Gold goes over time, about a half an hour over; which normally wouldn't bother him but Belle was probably on her way to his office. He needs to get rid of Gold before she gets there. Mr. Gold sees how anxious he is all of the sudden.

"Expecting someone?" he asks.

Archie doesn't want to be rude to Gold but he is over time and doesn't want to shorten his therapy session with Belle because she needs that time.

"I'm sorry Mr. Gold but I have another patient coming soon,"

Gold stands up, fixing his coat and tie. "That's all right, I'll come earlier tomorrow," he offers.

~~

Archie studies Belle's drawings after Gold leaves; the man or 'thing' still doesn't look like anyone he's seen before. It does however remind him of maybe one of the fairytale characters from Henry's book. Once that thought occurs to him though, Archie puts the drawings away. If he starts believing that Henry's stories are true, he's going to have quit counseling people and start putting himself through therapy.

Belle arrives later, apologizing for her tardiness, saying that she met a sweet little boy at Granny's diner.

Henry, Archie thinks, laughing at the irony.

His expression confuses her and Belle looks at him weird. "Before you arrived, I was looking at your drawings again and it made me think of one of the fairytale characters from Henry's book,"

"A book? What book?"

Archie shrugs. "I shouldn't be talking to you about this but he has this book of fairytales and I don't know, the man or thing that you drew, made me think of that book,"

It takes a moment for Belle to process what he's said and once she does her face lights up, removing a small leather shoulder bag which Archie didn't notice that she had and pulls out Henry's book. "He lent it to me," she says. "Henry said it might help me remember,"

Archie is surprised that Henry would let her borrow his book but on second thought, not really. Belle opens the book to a page Henry had bookmarked for her. The page shows a green-hooded woman walking alone on a road as she is turning to look at someone behind her. "He said that he thinks I am her," Belle says.

"Who's she?"

"Belle," she replies flatly, "From Beauty and the Beast,"

"Your name is Belle," he observes, looking curiously at her, "Belle, do you believe that this is you?"

She shrugs, laughing to herself before closing the book. "I know it's ridiculous," she admits, "Fairytales aren't real. That girl can't be me,"

Archie glanced back at his desk and thinks of the drawings. "What about your drawings of that 'thing'? He doesn't look anything like a man,"

"No, he doesn't," she agrees, "but he could have been a figment of my imagination too,"

"I suppose that's possible," Archie says before opening up his desk and removing two of the drawings, "but they're very character specific,"

Belle studies the drawings and sighs. "I suppose they are," she reasons, looking at him, "I hope you're not buying into this fairytale idea Dr. Hopper,"

He doesn't want to, not yet anyway, but how else could he explain Belle's drawings?

~~

Mr. Gold is very subdued the next time he arrives for his therapy session with Dr. Hopper, which is odd for him, because usually Gold is so talkative. It unnerves Archie.

"I dreamt about her again," he says finally.

Archie sits up anxiously; eager to hear more about this mystery 'she' that has haunted Gold's dreams. It doesn't even cross his mind about who this girl could be but he is hopeful to finally learn more. 'She' was the reason Gold went after Moe French and nearly beat him to death.

"Who is she?" Archie inquires.

"Someone I loved, a long time ago,"

He didn't remember anyone special in Mr. Gold's life. Then again, he wasn't particularly interested in befriending Gold at all because of his shady reputation.

"Who was she?"

Gold looks coldly at him but Archie doesn't back down. "Is there some contract that whatever I say you, you can't talk about with anyone?" he asks.

"Yeah, it's called a gag order,"

Gold smiles. "I like the image," he says and relaxes. "I didn't set out to fall in love, only take what was precious and taking her was my price,"

Archie shook his head. "Wait a minute, what do you mean 'taking her was your price?' Did you kidnap someone? " he cried.

"I didn't kidnap anyone; she willingly went with me, in exchange for saving her people," Gold defended. "She became my housekeeper, kept up after me, made me tea, mended my clothes when I needed her to, cleaned my home…I never saw her as anything but until that one day she fell into my arms and wasn't repulsed by me,"

Archie jots down some notes and Gold watches him, slightly amused he hasn't caught on. Then again, he is also Henry's therapist and doesn't believe in fairytales.

Yet.

tbc


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Therapy  
AUTHOR: obisgirl  
Rating: PG-13  
Characters: Belle, Archie, and Mr. Gold  
Summary: Doctor Archie Hopper treats Belle and Mr. Gold at the same time, but doesn't realize how connected they are. The more he learns about both of them, the more he starts to question his own sanity.  
Spoilers: Based on something Raphael Sbarge said at Paley Festival that he would be getting two new patients in addition to Henry this season. Part of this fic is "AU" since nothing has been said about Belle becoming one of Archie's patients this season.  
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time characters are property of Disney and Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis. This fanfic is for pure entertainment.

"They're starting to make more sense now," Belle starts and she smiles, "My memories, I mean,"

"That's good," Archie says, "What do you remember?"

Belle sighs. "Mostly cleaning, a lot," she reasons and that statement takes Archie aback. "I know it's strange; of everything I should remember, I remember 'cleaning'."

Archie laughs. "Maybe you were a maid of sorts before you were sent away?" he reasons.

"Maybe," she says, "but that's not the only thing I remember,"

"What else?"

She nods to his desk. "The drawings – that man - I think I worked for him,"

Archie glances back at his desk and then to Belle. "So, he is a man," he muses.

"Or was one once," she finishes, "And I was his caretaker,"

"You don't seem to be afraid of him anymore," he observes, "Why is that?"

Belle shrugs, smiling. "I don't know but he just doesn't scare me anymore,"

~~

Archie didn't think Mr. Gold could fall in love (he thought, along with everyone else in the town that he didn't have a heart). But his story about a – still unnamed woman – with whom he became very fond of and cared deeply for but tragically lost before he could tell her that he loved her, touched him.

And the way Mr. Gold speaks of the unnamed she, makes Archie curious about her true identity. Archie supposes the reason why Gold doesn't tell him her name is because saying it aloud is too painful, but talking about her now, to someone removed from the situation is cathartic for him.

Still, there are parts of Gold's story that makes him think when he lost this special someone, it wasn't in Storybrooke. It was somewhere else but Archie can't place where that 'somewhere' is.

During the last bit of the session, Archie finds himself crying, listening to Gold's story about how he realized that he loved her but decided to let her go instead.

~~

"I couldn't figure out why he let me go," Belle says, referring to the strange man in her drawings, "Not at first anyway,"

Archie looks at her curiously.

"He loved me," she breaths, "So he let me go, gave me my freedom, expecting to never see me again but I came back. We could have been happy together if he just believed that I could love him,"

"That's what you remember? What you believe?" he asks.

"Yes," Belle says without hesitation.

~~

Mr. Gold is unusually quiet but strangely calm the next time Archie sees him. "I'm done," he says.

"What do you mean 'you're done'?"

"With therapy. We're finished Doctor Hopper," Gold says.

"But we've only skimmed the surface…There might be more 'issues' you still need to deal with," Archie says.

"No," he replies plainly. "I've held onto my pain of loosing her for a long time, I never admitted to myself that it was my fault why she left. But I have now. Thank you Doctor Hopper for your help,"

Archie doesn't know what to say; he realizes trying to convince Gold of staying in therapy is useless when he's made peace with the past and is ready to move on.

"You're welcome Mr. Gold," is all he says, "I'm glad I was able to help you,"

They end their session early that day; Mr. Gold thanks him again, shakes his hand and walks away.

~~

Belle doesn't know what to say as she sits on Doctor Hopper's couch. Archie knows that she wants to say something but is having trouble saying what's on her mind. He offers her tea instead, hoping that will help her open up.

"I saw him," she says finally.

Archie isn't sure what she's talking about and Belle stands up abruptly, fidgeting. "I saw him…for real," Belle continues, "I thought I was hallucinating but he's real, Dr. Hopper,"

"You mean the man in your drawings?"

"Yes, him!" she cries, "I talked to him,"

Archie frowns. "Hold on a minute, you mean you physically talked to the man in your drawings? Belle, I don't understand – he's a drawing,"

"No, he's not," she cries, "I talked to him; today, matter of fact. He told me how sorry he was for making me leave and for everything else,"

"Then what happened?"

Belle smiles. "I forgave him, he smiled at me, kissed my cheek and walked away," she says.

"How did your meeting make you feel, Belle?" he asks.

"Cathartic," she says, "Like there was this missing part of me and I didn't know where it fit until I met him,"

Peace, Archie thinks and remembers Mr. Gold's session earlier, saying that he didn't need therapy anymore because he found his peace and Belle found her peace, meeting a stranger on the streets of Storybrooke.

Archie clears his throat. "So, who was this gentlemen?" he asks.

Belle smiles at him knowingly. "Gold," she says and Archie's smile turns into a frown.

"You mean Mr. Gold?"

"Yes," Belle continues, "Who did you think I was referring to?"

Archie removes his glasses, rubbing his forehead. Suddenly, it all makes sense; he couldn't understand why he didn't see the similarities in their stories before.

Gold's mystery woman cleaned for him, Belle worked as a caretaker for some strange man; he fell in with love with her but he turned her away because he didn't think she could love him and somehow, she ended up in the psych ward of Storybrooke hospital.

Mr. Gold was Belle's beast and she was his true love, which meant that Henry's stories were true.

Archie pours himself a glass of water and wishes for once that he had something stronger to drink in his office.

"Doctor Hopper, are you all right?" Belle asks, genuinely concerned about him.

Archie isn't sure but now he thinks that he needs therapy.

The End


End file.
